"I don't know why people pay for rental cars when so many friends and family members just leave their keys lying around unattended."

~ Tammy Jo Trask, whose car is often misplaced.

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NYT bestselling author Nina Bangs writes awesome sexy, funny paranormal romances, but she didn't always know that she would become a writer. When asked in an interview what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said:

"I wasn't so practical when I was young. I wanted to ride horses. I wasn't too clear on the concept of how I'd manage that, but I was open to suggestions."

Don't you just love that? Amazingly, she went on to raise and show Arabians for a few years. So apparently Nina's good at turning all kinds of dreams into reality. I'm taking notes! (To learn more about Nina's terrific books, visit her site - www.NinaBangs.com)

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Another author whose work I love is Alyssa Day. She writes about the lost city of Atlantis (which I know existed and am fascinated by) and the incredibly sexy Warriors of Poseidon-- c'mon, who wouldn't love buff boys from the deep blue sea who are on a mission and fall in love along the way? Clearly most people do love them since Alyssa hit the New York Times Bestseller list with her latest release. (Hurray! People have such good taste.)

Now, I could envy Alyssa because she's beautiful, talented, and because she has her own sea-faring warrior (in the form of her husband who's in the Navy), but I don't envy her those things. What I'm actually sea-weed green with envy over is her new author portrait that she unveiled on her blog on August 20th. I too want a live-in artist who will illustrate scenes from my books and my life. I'll hold a trident, an ocelot, or even hunky warrior if it's absolutely necessary.

If you'd like to win a signed copy of Barely Bewitched from the Southern Witch series, an autographed copy of A Taste of Darkness by Nina Bangs, and a copy of Atlantis Rising by Alyssa Day, then please drop by in the comments and answer the following:

If you had magical powers, which of your dreams would you make come true?

Magical powers? The hardest part is deciding what power to choose. Could my Magical power be the ability to affect probability? If I could do that, I'd tip the scales in my mother's favor to win the lottery. She could finally get my dad's medical bills taken care of and retire! Yeah, definitely Probability. My dream of seeing my folks taken care of - all taken care of!

Oooh, is time travelling a magical power? I could go back in time and change a thing or two...don't know if that go towards making any of my dreams come true, though, but it might change some things. :)

I think if I had a magical power, I would create an island where time stood still. Then when I really needed to get stuff done, but had very little time to do it in, I could go there and work. Plus when I didn't need it, I would rent the island out to writers, who needed someplace to write uninterrupted, and my fellow teachers/professors, who needed more time and space for grading.

If I could have a magical power, I think that it would be a power that allows me to be two places at once. Yes, it is back to school time for me, and I have three kids in three different schools and of course back to school night falls on the same night for two the kids. I am looking forward to seeing how this works out.

RE Magical Powers: Pfft I would make my own hybrid Bently, because a. I'm all about the green living b. OPEC can suck it, paying for high priced gasoline is so Bush-era c.*closing eyes* I would look so sexy in it.

If I had magical powers I would use it to heal my husband also I would heal my son of his hearing loss and I would heal myself of the muscle disease and sun allergy. Part of the power would be that when I heal someone that they will then be able to heal others and we could go around fixing people.

Magical powers? A bit of a hard question since there would be so many things I would love to be able to do, such as telepathy or have infinete knowledge. But, I would most likely go for knowing when someone is being truthful, sort of like be a human veritaserum (Harry Potter ref). There's so much lying and deceit in the world that it would be nice to know when someone is up tono good especially if it has to deal with your well being or the like.

If I had magical powers I would use them to make my dream of traveling the world with my husband come true. It would be cool to be able to just snap my fingers and pop into different places and even different time periods.

Hmm. You know, my dream in life is just to be happy, so I don't really think magic will be the answer as there's nothing specific I want, so I think I would probably use magi to make someone else's dream come true. I would probably make my Mum well again, so she could have fun like she used to. I think the whole family would love that.

Out of magical powers, I would love to have the ability to heal myself and other people. I've always seen my mother as amazingly strong and young but we're all getting older and it takes some adjusting to. I'd love to be able to keep people that I love healthy and active - and to stay that way myself.

Even though it might also be a curse, I love the idea of reading other people's thoughts. Imagine the power of knowing what other people are thinking! I would use this magical power to make my dream of a new, better career come true.Thanks!

If I could have any magical power it would be the ability to transform myself into a falcon. This way when life becomes to stressing or I just need to get away I could spead my wings and escape into the sky. And getting there pretty fast helps too.My dream of true escape (if only for the moment)would come true.

If you have magical powers, don't they usually come with some fine print? Such as, no true love hexes, no killing, no changing history, etc? Honestly, if I had magical powers, such as the ability to create objects out of air or make myself invisible, I would still prefer to live life as it should be. Eliminating the struggle of attaining your dream takes away the appreciation of the achievement. No matter how painful or difficult, I'd rather claim the full glory, than only partial credit.

If I had magical powers I'd like to be like the Bewitched star and be able to wrinkle my nose and have my house cleaned up. Laundry done, groceries put up that kind of things. Of course I'd also like to use my powers for humanity too. Just thought I'd throw that in, I'm not totally selfish.

Choosing magical powers is difficult for me because several of them would be cool to have. I'd like to be invisible for a while to see what people truly think about me. I'd like to be able to teleport. Being able to see the world without having to deal with long airline lines would be great. The one I'd choose is to be able to predict the future. This way I could choose the lottery numbers and win. Have a great day.

After a bit of thought (love your questions so far, btw), I've decided that if I had a magical power I'd want to be able to *abracadabra* myself into the books and actually become the female lead of whatever story I was reading at the time. Wouldn't it be cool to experience them in such a way?! . . . even if only for a few hours here and there. I love to escape reality with books, so what would be more appealing than first person interaction? =) If only I had gotten my letter for Hogwarts, lol!

It's hard to pick one. But eleiminating pain amd disease would be a great start. But I would love to teleport to the Highlands of Scotland to meet a kilt wearing Alpha male. :) Carol L.Lucky7450@aol.com

I would love to be able to speak to animals through my thoughts. I want to be a veternarian so it would be a dream to know what they are really thinking and how they feel. I could do a lot of good if I knew what was hurting them.

Hummm If I had powers which dream would I make come true......honestly right now? I'd make my dream of providing for my mom so she'd never have to worry about a thing again. She'd have everything her little heart could desire all bills paid, any place she wanted to go she could. So I'd do that. I make my mother's dreams come true.

Ok, hate to be cliche, but my first order of business would be to give myself Jennifer Aniston's body, minus the smokes...After that, health and wellness all around! Then, I would update my living quarters. Ooohhh, I'm getting into this--From my new beach house, I would rewind global warming and create 4 day workweeks. Also, mandatory siestas for all grumpyfolk! Essentially, I would command: health, wealth, goddess-like body status and whirled peace, pretty much in that order! Thanks for the chance to share the fantasy!

Sorry guys. I am thinking I mis-read the question (I read the other comments AFTER I posted). Oh well...I too would have a hard time picking and choosing a single magical trick. Selfishly, the Jen Aniston bod might still win... ;)

Magical powers...perhaps the ability to really be superwoman/super Mom and do everything at once...that's it - superhuman speed so I could do the housecleaning in 5 minutes, cook dinner in 3 minutes and then have loads of time to play with the kids, read books, etc. I suppose I should add working out in 4 minutes to that list too...

I would love to have the power of druid speak like in the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning. Just speaking and I could get whatever I want for my family and friends. Yeah that would be it, power of influence and persuasion, lol.

If I had magical powers I would FOR SURE get myself a pet dragon to sit on my shoulder - and see a unicorn! I think I would also be awesome with weapons skills. Nice to know a girl can take care of herself with a broadsword *wink*

This is a difficult question. I've always wanted to win the lottery so I could have more time to spend working with several charity groups I donate to. I would love to work fulltime on one of them in particular. My son and I were just talking about the advantages of being able to teleport to different locations (during a 15-hour car ride).

Haha! I'd love to have powers like Samantha Stevens on Bewitched! Son has a history question? Poof - historical figure in the living room! Hubby bring company home? Poof - clean house! Forgot to buy milk? Poof- it's in the fridge!

Magical powers? I soooo wish....magical...*sigh* There's sooo many..let's see..anything from super speed to going back in time. There are *lots* of stuff I'd like to redo.

Mostly out of all of them the ability to heal magically. You know, place your hand over a wound and make it disappear something like that or similar. Seeing others healthy and happy is a wonderful feeling. =)

Oh boy. I would definitely want the power to time travel. That way I could go back in time and kick myself in the arse right before I did something detrimental to my future. I could also jump ahead and make sure current decisions were going to pan out. I CANT WAIT FOR BARELY BEWITCHED!!!! I've been foaming at the mouth for it ever since I finished Would-Be Witch. It's torture!

I would love the gift of sight. I could help avoid major catastrophes if I could. Even minor ones involving accidents or where animals or children were hurt. Anything to help would be good. Not saying I couldn't use it to see the winning lottery numbers and then be able to help many causes like Bill and Linda Gates.If it would be possible, it could help so many people.

Great question! I can think of so many things I would want if I had magical powers. The first thing that came to my mind of course is to have more money that I could ever spend in a lifetime. Anything else I'd want can be bought with that money. :)

But I'd also like to have the ability to freeze time, move things with my mind, read minds, have XRay vision, etc. All that fun stuff! :)

I'd love to be able to change my appearance. Try pink hair one day, maybe see what it's like to be a little taller, etc. You'd always win at hide and seek.. no one would know it's you! Not that I play hide and seek much anymore, but old for it, I'm afraid.

Huh - everyone has really great ideas of what they would like. I think if I had magical powers it would be almost gene like where you could help out with anything thing like Alladin!

Just wanted to let you know that I absolutely loved Would-be-witch - I purcased it as soon as it came out and it seriously took me like a day to read. So I have been looking forward to the realease date of the second one - yay it's almost here! I will also have to check out the other Authors that you have mentioned.... :)

I would love to be able to use Astral projection. I would be able to accomplish and have time to take care of my family, clean the house, read, study and write. This would make my wish of a peaceful household come true.

I'd love to have healing powers. The only problem would be if people found out you'd be overwhelmed and if you tried to heal everyone who needed it you'd never have enough time & energy. The best way would be to be able to heal and do it anonymously.

Hi Kimberly,Your Parapalooza is so much fun, thanks. If I had a magical power, I'd like the ability to change time. I would rewind any event that didn't go quite as planned & do it again; sort of like a time loop. Ever wished you could take back a hurtful word? Retake a test, kiss a loved one who's passed just 1 more time, not get into that car accident. Yep, change time with a flick of my wrist. witchywoman064(at)yahoo(dot)com

Wow! That is a tough one. It is a toss up between teleportation so I would never be late again to an appointment or the ability to heal so some of my friends and family would not have to suffer with some of the prolonged illnesses they are affected with plus anyone else who would request my help.

so many things to chose from. I think I would like to magic plants-grow them and such and be able to make magic potions from them to be able to heal people or make them be happier and things. So I'd have to go with healing then being able to fly.

Well what magical power would I choose? That's hard to say. I would like to have all of them,invisibility, mind reading, teleportaion, telekenesis (i'm kind of lazy on my days off from work.) LOL I think the best one would be time travel, I would love to visit different eras.

Hmm....the first magical power I thought of that I would like is magical "healing" power so that I could cure (especially children) of life-threatening difficult to treat illnesses without pain/discomfort. More selfishly, I would also like the ability to make my house magically clean itself, the yardwork take care of itself, etc. so that I could spend more time on the work I love doing and the people I love and want to be with more often.

Oh--maybe I would want to control the weather. I could then start a wedding/event planning business and guarantee good weather. I would of course, see my business accelerate after word spread and become quite wealthy and successful. And, boy could I plan a great family picnic/barbeque w/o worrying:) More importantly, after having had 2 basement floods to deal with already, I could spare myself and millions of other people the agony of having to clean up that dirty, waterlogged flood caused mess! Yes, I'd definately like the power to turn off the rain!

Hi Kimberly and Congrats on your upcoming new release. I really like the cover. :)I haven't read an Alyssa D. but I have read Nina and her books are good.As to the question that is a hard one. But I have chosen just one, the power to heal. It would be great to help others and make someone's life better you know.I saw this reoccurring answer and it warms my heart and should give us all hope. It wasn't for gain, greed or anything negative we wish for this one magical power but to help those we love, we are close too.Blessed be to you and all your commentors.Best Wishes and Good Luck everyone!

If I had magical powers, I would have an infinite supply of money. I know that sounds bad, but really. I could do so much more with my education. Right now, everyone else in the Junior class is planning a music trip to New York next Spring. I can't go because my family doesn't have the money. There are a lot of financial problems in my family and it's holding us all back. That's why I would love to have the money whenever I need it. And I would definitely be donating left and right. :)